Climate Change and Development

Climate change is one of the foremost challenges, which faces humanity in the 21st century and, in some cases belatedly, it is being prioritised as such by (most!) governments, development agencies and NGOs around the world.

It is a topic, which straddles many academic disciplines––environmental science; human geography; economics; law; development––and it still has the power to court debate and controversy, even after the Paris Agreement of 2015 when nearly 200 countries came together to agree a proposal to cut emissions.

Donald Trump

Perhaps the greatest threat to the Paris accord comes in the form of US President, Donald Trump.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration began the formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement by submitting a notification of its intent to the United Nations. The move was not entirely unexpected: Trump had given notice of his intention to withdraw from the Paris Agreement during his election campaign, and he has consistently advocated his support for the US coal industry and for the resurrection of the Dakota Access Pipeline project.

It aims to provide a thorough background of both the practical and the conceptual issues involved with climate change, in order to produce the next generation of environment and development professionals to work on shaping meaningful climate policy and practice for the future.

The module focuses on issues relating to both developed and emerging economies, both in terms of ‘direct’ impacts like emissions and ‘indirect’ impacts such as livelihoods, communities and economics.